6th Birthday Party

This year, we had Mary Beth's birthday party at a fun place where you can paint your own pottery. Each of the girls painted a plate of her own. I think they all had a good time.

The only request Mary Beth had for her cake was that she wanted it to have roses. That was certainly easy enough!

All in all, it was a fun day.

First Day of Kindergarten

The first day of school was Monday, but Mary Beth didn't make it until today, Wednesday. She's been sick for several days. This made it a little harder on mommy, but made Mary Beth all the more eager to go. We like her teacher very much, and I think she'll take good care of my baby.

Bella thinks there must be something good to eat in that lunchbox!

Summer's Almost Over!

Even though it's hot, hot, hot here, summer is practically over for us. The munchkin starts kindergarten on Monday. We went to open house tonight and met her teacher who seems very nice. Unfortunately, none of the children she has met here in our new town are in her class, so we'll be starting over at making friends. I think this is bothering me more than it is her, but I'm really sad about it.

We've had a good summer, though. Two trips to the beach, Butterfly Camp, Vacation Bible School, Princess Ballet Camp, and swimming lessons kept us busy. The pictures are from the last day of ballet camp when all the girls dressed up as princesses and put on a little show for the parents.

I'll have 3 weeks until my piano teaching term begins. I'm up to 6 after-school students now with a goal of 12, so I'm willing to bet that I fill all of those slots by the end of September. That doesn't include mornings. I have one home-schooler already and hope to have more.

Kevin has begun doing shift work, but fortunately he doesn't have very many night sessions between now and January, and he'll have more days off than usual. He'll actually be off on Monday and will be able to go along when we drop MB off for her first day at school. We've decided to go out for breakfast afterwards. He told me there was no crying allowed. We'll see about that.

Summer News and Pictures

Since I last posted, we've stayed busy. Grandma and Grandpa visited from Florida and got to meet the new house and the new dog. We enjoyed visiting with them and showing them our new town.


Not long after that, Mary Beth attended Vacation Bible School at a nearby Methodist Church. That turned out to be much fun, especially since we discovered that some of her friends from PreK were there, too.

We've spent many days at the neighborhood pool here in our new neighborhood. We meet up with our friends on the street as well as some of our school friends there. Mary Beth took swimming lessons through the Y, and has gained quite a lot of confidence in the pool.

One of our fun outings this summer was a trip to a blueberry farm. We picked a gallon of blueberries, and we're planning to go back for more!

We love blueberries!

For the fourth of July, we went to the Whigham family reunion in Dublin, Ga. Our cousin hosts a gathering at his home every other year. This year, Mary Beth learned to cast a fly rod at the pond, along with meeting several cousins, aunts, and uncles. Yep, that's Bella, our dog, in the picture. Hey, she's family, too!

And finally, the best and most wonderful news is that we finally sold our house in Rincon. On the same day as the closing, Kevin took a final exam for the training phase he's been in at his new job, and he aced it. So, we're enjoying happy days.

When I traveled back to the closing, we got to attend Mary Beth's best friend's birthday party. There was lots to celebrate!

Look closely at the picture of the birthday cake in the final picture. If you live anywhere near Springfield, GA and you want a cake, order it from Sheila's Cakes. The birthday girl's grandmother is opening a bakery - and she's very talented. Look at the tiny butterflies on the 5!

A Visit From The Tooth Fairy

After hanging by a thread for days, that little front tooth finally popped out at the neighborhood block party last weekend. Mary Beth was so excited to lose her first tooth. "I'm really a big girl, now!" Of course, the tooth fairy came. Yesterday, we discovered that the other lower front tooth is loose, too. Looks like we're going to keep the tooth fairy busy!

Beach Trip

Mary Beth, Bella, and I had a great time last week at St. Simons Island. I found that it was a challenge to be there with a dog who couldn't be left alone, but it was balanced out by the fun of watching her play on the beach and meeting lots of fellow dog lovers.

Mary Beth attended a camp about butterflies! She had a great time! On one day, they went out to the beach to fly homemade kites, and the reporters from the local paper showed up. Mary Beth was on the front page of the newspaper!

While Mary Beth went to camp, I took the dog to the beach and let her run off the leash while there were few people to disturb. There's no doubt that she's part Labrador retriever. She absolutely loves the water! However, she absolutely does not love being left alone, and since we didn't want the condo to end up with damaged door frames or window blinds, we had to take her everywhere we went. This meant no trips to restaurants. So, we enjoyed lots of picnics on the beach and at the park. It was fun to be outside so much! We did manage to spend a little time at the condo pool with the aid of doggy valium and Bella's crate. Even with the valium, I had to keep popping inside to reassure her. We did manage to spend as much as an hour and a half at the pool this way before she'd begin non-stop barking. We hope that these problems will sort themselves out as we continue gradual crate/separation conditioning and as she matures. Otherwise, she's such a great dog! So, I've resigned myself to making this the "summer of the dog" as we work on these issues.